A motor vehicle comprises a plurality of wheels on which wheel sensors are mounted. Each wheel sensor can sample, for example, an air pressure of a tire which is mounted on the wheel. The sampled information is usually transmitted from the wheel to the motor vehicle by means of a wireless transmission link. Since the wheel sensors can be exchanged or interchanged, for example, during servicing work on the wheels or tires, it is necessary occasionally to carry out reassignment between a wheel sensor and an installation location. The term installation location is meant here to refer to the designation of a wheel of the motor vehicle, for example “front left” or “rear right”.
WO 2012/035121 A1, which is incorporated by reference herein, presents a tire monitoring system in which each tire is assigned a transverse acceleration sensor.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,860,634 B2, which is incorporated by reference herein, presents a method for determining the location of tires in which each tire is assigned an acceleration sensor. In this context, directional information of a transverse acceleration signal of the acceleration sensor is evaluated in order to determine whether the wheel is on the right or on the left.
DE 10 2005 057 305 A1, which is incorporated by reference herein, presents a device for a tire pressure monitoring system in which each wheel is assigned a sensor device for sensing steering movements of the assigned wheel. The sensor device determines here a transverse acceleration of the wheel assigned thereto. From a comparison of the sensor signals with one another it is possible to determine whether a wheel is on the front axle or on the rear axle.
In addition it is known to position a receiver for the wireless transmission of the information of the wheel sensors in such a way that the transmission path to one of the axles is shorter than to the other axle. On the basis of the level of a reception signal it is then possible to infer the axle on which a transmitting wheel sensor is mounted. However, unexpected reflections of the wireless signals can bring about an incorrect assignment.
In yet a further embodiment, pulses from rotational speed sensors of all the wheels are counted during the transmission time of a wheel sensor. The position of the transmitting wheel sensor is determined on the basis of the counting result. This method is problematic, inter alia, because a relatively large number of signals have to be transmitted by a bus system of the motor vehicle, which can lead to transit time problems.